


falling

by canonlytrans



Category: The Freshman & The Sophomore (Visual Novels)
Genre: F/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 06:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14764058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canonlytrans/pseuds/canonlytrans
Summary: Things you said when I was crying.





	falling

A room filled with people, and yet Emily feels completely alone. She’s stuck - that’s what she is, trapped beneath words and arguments and paper and this stupid investigation that she shouldn’t have gotten involved in (but, God, she’s always been a truth-seeker, nothing could possibly change that.)

It’s a party - at her own apartment, no less. Her friends mingle - Kaitlyn and Becca are talking with some pretty red-haired girl, Becca’s braid swinging across her back as she talks. Zack’s with Grant, holding hands, and they’re looking at each other with the most romantic expressions. Chris, Zig, Aaron and Arjun chat in a corner, holding red solo cups half full, laughing at whatever Aaron’s saying. And there’s Tyler and Abbie, on the border of making out in full view of everyone and God is it _annoying_.

It’s annoying, because they’re happy, and she can’t tell them a damn thing.

Emily grits her teeth and presses through the slight crowd, sliding into the kitchen to grab something to eat - of course, everything good’s gone, no chips or cookies or whatever it was Zack bought, the empty plastic boxes stacked up on the counter.

It’s not that she can’t tell them, really, it’s that she won’t. They can’t be involved. Last year, when Sebastian sabotaged the house, when they had to fight tooth-and-nail to protect Vasqeuz’ home… she still remembers the bleary-eyed, coffee-filled nights planning out everything they could to keep the place. She can’t let them get involved, not with whatever’s going on at Hartfeld (everything in her says it’s Beau, all of it, but she can’t ignore other possibilities.)

So she grabs a bottle of Coke from the fridge, unscrews the top, and steps out into the apartment hallway, leaving the drumming music behind. She sits down on the carpet, splaying her legs out, taking a sip, then pulls out her phone. Her thumb swipes across the screen, typing in her password, then… she finds herself texting the one person who seems to get it all, despite everything different about them.

His family’s rich, hers is not. He has almost everything, she doesn’t. The differences are astounding, and the fact that she’s connected with him… completely unexpected, to say the least. Emily never once thought she’d find herself falling for someone so different from her.

Her thumb hovers over the call button.

What’s she supposed to say? _Hey, I just wanted to hear your voice._ Or… _hey, Nathan, I’ve missed talking to you, it’s been a while._ Or possibly, _I think I’m falling in love with you and I don’t know what to do and this is ridiculous, Nathan Sterling, please tell me you feel the same way._

Except she doesn’t say any of that - instead, she doesn’t say anything at all. She hangs up two seconds after she calls, buries her face in her knees, the denim scratching against her skin.

Footsteps echo behind her, and she doesn’t bother to look up (it’s the alcohol in her system, normally she would.) But then there’s a hand on her shoulder and she reacts, eyes widening, limbs practically flying, ready to scream -

“Emily!” says Nathan, looking just as shocked as she feels. “Are you -”

“I’m fine,” she says.

He gestures at the ground next to her. “Can I…?”

“Go ahead. It’s free real estate.”

“I’d disagree,” he says, sitting down next to her, his almost-every-color-ever eyes meeting hers. “You look lovely, Emily.”

She shakes her head, giving a slightly nervous laugh in response. “I look like I’ve been drinking cheap beer and dancing with sweaty football players for four hours.”

He pushes a strand of her hair out of her face, and her cheeks flame up, heat rising. “You look beautiful.”

“Do you think we’re in over our heads?” she asks.

He raises his eyebrows, his fingers still touching her face, curled into his palm and just barely brushing her cheek, and God, she wants him again, just like Thanksgiving, but - it’s probably just the alcohol thinking for her, she’s not sure what she wants, she barely knows him (or does she know him more than she thinks?) “What do you mean?”

“Oh, cut it, you know what I mean.”

“...with Beau?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think so. I’m worried about him - and about the harm he might cause, but…” And Nathan’s expression flickers with doubt. “No, I don’t think we’re in over our heads. If it was really, truly bad, we’d do something.”

She finds herself leaning into him, letting him skim his fingers across her face. “You know about last year.”

“You fought for Vasquez’s house.”

“Yeah. It could’ve gotten messy. But we pushed through and… I wish I could tell my friends. I just… what if Tyler finds out, tells Beau? What if Kaitlyn tells Kassidy? Or, God, what if Beau hurts one of my friends?”

“He wouldn’t. And if he did…” Nathan shakes his head, as if trying to clear the thoughts from his head. “...we’d deal with that. I promise you, if he’s behind any of these pranks, we’ll find out, and I swear that we’ll fix it. We’ll stop him.”

“Did I tell you about… freshman year?”

“Well, not exactly… I read about it in your book,” he says, smiling somewhat sheepishly.

She blinks a few times before she realizes she’s trying not to cry (God, alcohol really does make her slow, doesn’t it?) “I… kind of dated one of my friends for a while. It… didn’t work out.” She laughs, voice sort of buzzing in her throat. “Sometimes I think that I’m cursed with relationships. They never work out. N’body cares about me that much.”

“I’m sorry.”

And then the tears come spilling out, trailing down her cheeks and ruining her eyeliner - not like it’s not already smudged, and there’s traces it on her jeans, but it’s definitely not a good look. “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. Heck, I didn’t even know you back then. Is it weird I wish we’d met sooner?”

“No.”

“‘Cause I do.”

Nathan takes her face in his hands, turning her towards him. “I do, too, Emily. You’re wonderful. Really. I’ve seen a lot, but I’ve never seen anything or anyone as amazing as you. You’re talented and smart and your love for your friends is so strong and it’s incredible.”

“I…”

“Listen to me,” he says, his voice going all soft. “I don’t think that we’re over our heads at all. And I promise to do whatever I can to make sure you know that I care about you. Besides, I think your friends care about you even more.”

He presses his lips against hers, and the tears on her cheeks don’t matter anymore. ( _I think I’m falling in love with you_ , she thinks. _Hell, screw ‘think’ - I am falling in love with you, Nathan Sterling._ ) 


End file.
